"American Idol" new old executive producer
Nigel Lythgoe has announced a few changes to the programming lineup via Twitter Tuesday (Feb. 22). Nigel
tweets:

"Because of all the Drama in the #AmericanIdol green mile show we have been asked to cut the Beatles Vegas Challenge to 1 hour instead of 2!!"

"#AmericanIdol on Wednesday is a 1 hour Beatle Challenge and then 1 hour of choosing the top 20 up until JLo breaks down and can't continue!"

To decipher that for you, originally the Wednesday, Feb. 23 episode featuring the 60 contestants who are left competing in a Beatles performance challenge in Las Vegas was supposed to be two hours long. It's still two hours, but now instead of watching performances for two hours, the last hour of programming will feature the judges trying to choose the Top 24 (we'll get to that in a minute).

Then Thursday, Feb. 24 will have another two-hour show - the "Green Mile Show," which is what the production crew calls the episode where the Idols ride up the Elevator of Heartbreak to sit in the Chair of Sadness while they learn their final fate of the audition rounds. It is so named by the crew because it's like the contestants' own death row walks.

So instead of two hours of performing and two hours of deliberating, we are now getting one hour of performing and apparently three hours of J.Lo crying. That should be fun.

Nigel also tweeted a couple days go, "The #Idol talent was so strong this year, the judges lost sleep over their choices. Instead of a top 20 they eventually decided on a top 24," so there is a Top 24, despite having referred to a Top 20 in his tweet about J.Lo breaking down.